So, ♪ In fields and valleys ♪ ♪ Christ
is born of God ♪ ♪ Christ is born of God ♪ ♪ Christ is born
of God ♪ Oh. Oh. Oh. I am in love with my man. So we ride on the shadows. We watch and we feel. So we ride
on the shadows. So we ride on the shadows. I think because I'm happy. I think because I'm free. I know I'm not alone. I know I'm not alone. ♪ I never thought it would last
♪ ♪ I never thought it would last ♪ ♪ I thought it would last
for me ♪ ♪ I thought it would last for me ♪ ♪ I thought it
would last for me ♪ When I am on the road And nobody's
there for me When I am on the road And my brother's there to
hold me I'm thinking of you Oh. Oh. John chapter 4. John chapter 4. You know what would be the most
wonderful thing that could possibly happen to us this morning, or to you individually, it would be for the Lord Jesus
Christ to come here this morning. I know how the world, with all
of its religious hypocrites and clowns and showmen and showwomen
talk about revelations and visions, and talk about this Jesus that
they've conjured up. I know about that. Nevertheless,
it is true that Christ is a real person, and he really does visit
with his people. And he really has been in this
place. I've been here when he was here. Really. I'm not saying I've seen
him with any vision of these eyes or heard his voice with
these ears, but I have seen him with the eye of faith and heard
him with the eye of faith through this book, through his word.
And you not know anything, nor will you give that any credibility
until you yourself have heard and seen him, and then you will
know that what I'm saying is reality. And I'm back here again to see
if he might be coming through again. Because I want to be here,
and I want to hear him, and I want to see him again. That's the
reason I come here. Now, he doesn't just dwell here.
God doesn't dwell in a building made with hands. But he did promise
where two or three were gathered together in his name, he'd be
right there. One. Two. I hope so. The psalm says, while
on others, and this is what he does through the gospel, through
the preaching of the word. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, to say, that is, to talk to, to deal with, to
reveal himself to people by preaching. What I'm doing, the world calls
it foolishness, God esteems it highly. And this is how he calls
people. And the psalm says, While on
others thou art calling. There's a few in here that he
calls by the preacher, and they hear his voice. My sheep hear
my voice. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Please. Please. Look at verse 1 with me of chapter
4. This is our Lord coming to a
to a woman, a particular woman. You've heard this story so many
times, probably from this Pope here, so many times. And I have
too. But let's see it again. Let's
see it again. When therefore the Lord knew
how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John. In other words, the Pharisees
were righteously indignant against him. They didn't like what he
was doing and saying, and this and that and the other, and they
were about to try to lay hands on him. Though Jesus himself
baptized not, verse 2, but his disciples. He merely preached.
He left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs
go through Samaria. Now, to one discerning person,
this would appear to mean that that's the way he needed to go,
because from Judea to Galilee, that was the straightest, most
direct route, was through Samaria. It was a road, and it was the
shortest distance between two points. was through Samaria.
And to someone who didn't know what this was talking about,
they would think that he's talking about this is the way he had
to travel to get to Galilee. But no. Because, you
see, back in these days the Jews hated Samaritans. They hated
them. Everybody, if it was anybody,
wouldn't have anything to do with any Samaritans. They hated
them. They were a half-breed, a mixture of people. They hated
them. The Jews thought themselves to be the pure people, religious,
self-righteous. They hated the Samaritans, and
they went out of their way to go around Samaria. I don't care
if it was the straightest route, and they had to go to great extremes
to get around Samaria from Judea to Galilee. They'd do it, all
Jews. Not this Jew. He must go through
some area. Why? Why? There's somebody there. Somebody he had to see. Somebody
he had to see, and he had to get there. He must go there,
and he must go to great lengths to get there. While other people
were going to great lengths to get around it, he went to great
lengths to get there. He came from the throne of the
Father to get to Samaria. Because this is not just any
Jew, this is the Son of God on the trail of one of his people.
There's somebody in Samaria that he had to see. At just the right
hour, just the right moment, just the right second, they were
going to be there for their place in eternity. And he was going
to be there ready, ready. to seek out his people. This
is the great shepherd on the trail of his sheep, and he's
going to have them. He's the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. He agreed with the Father in
an agreement to come down here and save a people. And like I
said, he went to great lengths to become a man, to live among
despicable creatures and live a terrible existence just to
save a people. to save a people. And one of
his people who he knew from time and eternity, one lost sheep,
one little lost sheep, was down in Samaria. Now, he's going to
have her. He's going to have her. One little
lost sheep. He must need to go through Samaria,
because all of his people are going to be saved, every one
of them. It's coming a time when Christ goes back to the right
hand of the Father, and he's going to present all of the people
that the Father elected and gave to him in that covenant. He's
going to say, they're all here, behold them, I and the children
which thou hast given me. They're all here, not one of
them missing, even that little Samaritan down there, a little
despised woman. He must, and would to God, that he must need to go through
Rocky Mount, Virginia. this morning. If he's got a sheep here, he
must. Would to God. Would to God that
he'd go through this place this morning. Now, look at verse 5
with me. So he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sachar,
near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's will was there,
a well-known watering hole. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey. You think about that. God being tired. He's touched with a feeling of
our infirmity. God got tired. He didn't have
to. He did it. He wearied himself,
Rick. He wearied himself. He troubled himself. That's what
it said. Lazarus Stone said he groaned and was troubled. Look
at that. It means he troubled himself. Put himself to great
trouble to go through this. He was weary with his journey.
He sat on the well. It was about the sixth hour. You know, I thought about this. I tried to put this thing in
a setting. I tried to come up with a picture of how this must
have been. But I can imagine—this is just my imagination, but it'll
work. I can just imagine our Lord thinking
about this woman, this one woman down in Samaria. And he left
Judea, and he was on his way to Galilee. He had some other—he
must have gone through Galilee, too. But he had to go to Samaria
to see this one woman. And I can just imagine that he
got up, left Judea, and like it said, he set his face like
a flint to go to Jerusalem, to the cross. They were telling
him then, don't go, don't you know the Jews are out to get
you? Oh, I must, if I don't go and prepare a place for you.
And you know that. Well, he must go to Samaria. And I can just imagine, he got
up from Judea, finishing what he was doing, and sent his post
like a flint to Samaria. Got up and started walking, went
out ahead of the whole bunch, and they all got up, started
gathering their things, and said, where's he going now? And so
they followed him behind him, and they walked for I don't know
how many hours, and they were probably getting tired, and said,
Lori, wait up! What's the hurry? Let's stop
and rest here. No! I got an appointment. We'll rest when we get there.
I got someone to meet. And I'm going to meet her. I'm
going to see her. I'm going to be waiting right
there for her. Well, it was about twelve o'clock
noon, verse 7. And there cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Now, picture this. Christ was
sitting on that well, waiting on her. And here came this woman,
a woman. She sure was lucky, this woman.
A woman, a particular woman, a chosen woman, a woman whom
this man, this Savior knew from the foundation of the world,
who had his eye on her. Luck, chance, accident? No. Election, predestination, providence,
eternal, eternal election. This woman was not just any woman.
She was God's woman. And he was going to have her.
He was one of his sheep. She was one of his sheep. But
back then, women didn't draw water, didn't go to get water.
The well was their only source of water. They didn't have running
water. They went to the well. Everybody
used the same well, Jacob's Well. It was a deep, deep well. And women didn't go in the middle
of the day when it was hot. The wee hours of the morning,
in the morning, so they could do their cooking and their washing
for the rest of the day. That's when they'd get their
water. But this woman, she showed up in the middle of the day,
in the heat of the day, when the soil was at its hottest. Why?
Well, because she was a notorious woman. Everybody in town knew
this woman. And everybody, it was anybody,
turned thumbs down on her. She was notorious. They all thought
she was a wicked woman. Didn't have anything to do with
her. She didn't have any friends.
Been married several times. And living with a man now in
adultery. And nobody wanted anything to
do with her. Nobody. Except one somebody. The only
somebody who mattered had something to do with her. Oh boy, did he
have something to do with her. But anyway, here came this woman.
Here she came. And Christ wants you to notice.
It's that he was there first. He was sitting on the well, waiting
on her. She didn't come up to him. He
was waiting on her. He was waiting on her. He was
sitting on the well. He came to where she was in the
heat of the day, in the midst of her toil and her shame. He
was there before she got there, sitting on the well. Sitting
on the well. And he spoke to her, look at
verse 7, Jesus saith unto her, give me the drink. He didn't ask her, did he? When
Christ speaks, when God, I hear people out there talking about
God said this to me and that to me, and they go through all
those silly little motions and so forth. If God Almighty speaks
to somebody, whew, man, they'll be on their faces in God really
spoke to somebody. And He doesn't ask for things. He commands. He said to this
woman, give me a drink. You know, here she came up in
the middle of the day. She had her face wrapped up, looking
around, seeing if anybody was watching her. She came up with
her pail of water, and maybe not looking where she was going.
It was hot. And got up to the well, and here this man was sitting
on the well, and he said, give me a drink. And she looked at him by his
dress, his clothing, his facial features and all, and she knew
he was a Jew right away. Jew? And this is what she said,
look at verse 8. His disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. Then he said, The woman of Samaria
under him. How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask a drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria? The Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans. That's a good question. Let me apply this spiritually.
I'll say this with David. How is it that he, being the
Son of God, would have anything to do with me, who am a worm?
No man and a worm. You know what David said? What
is man that thou art mindful of him? Especially when he come
and visit, sit on the ladder. He come and walk upon this earth
in this misery and this sin and this corruption. What is man? Well, how is it that you, being
the Son of God, would speak to me? Excuse me, how is it she
didn't know this too, did she? And if you ask that question,
you don't know this God. Well, he said, look at verse
10. Woman, he said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, if thou knewest the gift of God,
if only she knew what she really needed. Right? She'd come to fetch a pail of
water. If only she knew what she really needed. If only she
knew. Though she was notorious and
miserable and was really impoverished, she still didn't know what she
needed. And that's a picture of us by nature. I would say
we're rich and increasingly good and have need of nothing when
you don't know we're blind and miserable and hot and lame and
poor and naked without God, without hope, without life by nature.
Without God, if you're without God, you don't have life. You
die in trespasses and sin. If only men and women knew then,
and young people, the gift of God, which is what? Eternal life. The gift of God. What this is
all about. And what I say about it is not
just religious rhetoric, it's true. I've experienced it. I've experienced Him. There's
some people in here who have. It's just not so much good things
to say on Sunday morning, it's reality, eternal life. And this
life is in his Son. The wages of sin, the Scripture
says, is death. We give of ourselves to this
world and everything in it, and we will die with it, our God,
but without him. Go to a place of torment, the
Scripture says. But the gift of God is eternal
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. still giving this gift to all
that ask it. But no, men and women and young
people are not thinking about God, they're thinking only of
themselves, about their personal happiness and their need of nothing.
And this applies to religious people too. Listen, if only they
knew the gift of God. Religious people think it's something
you earn. If you're mild enough, if you
live a good enough life, you can earn this favor of God. But
no, it's a gift. It's grace. It's the God-deserving. It's unmerited favor. It's bestowed. Did you read that quote in the
bulletin? Faith is not a gift that he offers to people. It's
a gift he gives. Here, take this, and you're made
willing. But if only men and women knew
that, the gift of God. Look at the verse again. If thou
knewest the gift of God, verse 10, and whom it is, the gift
is not a what, it's a who. It's not a concept, that's what
we said Sunday night. This thing of salvation and eternal
life is not a concept, it's a relationship. It's not going through the motions,
it's actually knowing, and loving, and believing in, and trusting
in, and following after, and being in a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who it is. Salvation is not a
what, it's a who. And if only this woman, like
you said there, if only she knew who this was that was talking
to her. The Son of God. And like her, this morning, you
remember the story of Jacob when he was, dreamed that dream, and
he wrestled with a man, a man wrestled with him there? And
he woke up, and here's what he said. He said, surely God was
in this place, and I knew it not. And I can say the same thing
with with Jacob many times, God has been in his place, and some
people knew it not. Knew it not. Well, I want to
know, before it's everlasting or too late, before I'm eternally
sorry. Well, look at verse 11. How's
she going to know? He said, Give me the drink. If
you knew who it was that said, Give me the drink, you would
have asked him, he would have given you living water. If you're
a nerd, how's she going to know? Only when he reveals to her,
right? That's the only way anybody's going to know. That's the only
way anybody in here is going to hear the voice of the Son
of God. and come to him by faith as if he reveals himself to us.
And that's what we're going to see here in the story. How are
they going to believe in him whom they've not heard? And how
are they going to hear without a preacher? And how is that man
going to preach with any power or effectiveness at all, except
he be sent by the Holy Spirit to a particular person, a particular
place? He must need to go through central Baptists. That's the
only way. Verse 11, wherever a woman said,
he said he would have given you living water, living water. Let me dwell there just a second.
You know, there are people in this world
that have hewed out for themselves broken cisterns. There are people
that are drinking from defiled filthy, polluted waters of this
world. This world is a cesspool of iniquity,
the scriptures call it. And there are people just drinking
it in, just drinking it in, consumed with it, when the fountain of
life is still flowing, still flowing. It's like somebody,
there are people right in here, right now, who are drinking out
of mud puddles, when right beside is the fountain of life. Would you go out and if there
was a fresh, crystal clear spring of water running down the side,
would you drink out of a mud puddle in the middle of the road?
If people are doing that, that's what people are doing when they're
being consumed with this world, when this gospel that I'm preaching
is more the fountain of life. And what faith is merely is to
drink it in. So is that strong? Is that right? to receive it. That's what faith is. Woman,
if you knew, if you knew. We'll look at verse 11. The woman
said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. Sir, you don't have anything
to draw with. Who are you? What can you do? She didn't see a thing in this
man, did she? Not a thing. Not a thing. He didn't look any
different than anybody else, any other Jew to her. Oh, he
would eventually. After this was all over, she'd
see him in a whole different light, in all new eyes. And much like her, we'd sit through
sermon after sermon after sermon. I did it as a boy. My daddy was
a preacher. Sermon after sermon after sermon,
it sounded like the same sermon again. Here he goes again, same
old sermon. I don't see anything special
about this. Why don't everybody, what's he
getting excited about? I don't see anything. Big deal.
Get this thing out of here. You don't have anything. What's
the big deal about all this? Look at verse 12. Are you greater
than our father Jacob? Oh, my soul. Are you greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle?" Yeah, this is the God of Jacob. The one sitting on the well made
the universe. He made the water in the well.
He is the water. I don't see anything special
about this Jesus, like this woman. Notice how tenderly he deals
with her. compassionate, merciful Savior. He could have said, you
stupid idiot. He'd have had a right to. And
that's us. Dull over here, listless and
lifeless. He actually ought to deal with
us, isn't he? What's the matter with you, woman? Don't you know
who I am? No, that's not the way he dealt
with it, was it? He dealt kindly and compassionately with her.
Listen to him, verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this well will thirst again. Do you understand that? Whosoever
drinketh of this well will thirst again. The water of this world
will leave you thirsty. Thirsty. I just had a drink a
little while ago. I'm still thirsty. You're probably
thirsty, too, aren't you, Janann? Thirsty. I just had a drink,
and about five minutes from now I'll be wanting another one. And the same goes with the pleasure
of this world. I immersed myself in it. I was
like young Solomon. Whatever I saw, I watched when
I was a young man. Some of you can maybe say the
same thing. I dove in headlong, and the Lord let me have it all,
too. sports cars, just you name it. Immersed myself, drank a
toothbrush, swam in it, this world. It didn't suffice. Never will. That's the reason
millionaires, billionaires, what are they after? More money. They'll
never spend what they've got as it is. But it's not enough,
is it? The water in this world. It's
kind of like a thirsty man trying to thirsty man trying to slake
his thirst with beer. Now, I've been told this, I don't
know, but people that are real thirsty and they try to drink
beer, one, you can't just stop at one, because it doesn't really
Quench your thirst. This mixture and impurity and
all that, it won't quench your thirst. You've got to have another
one. That's what it does to your mind and your body and all that.
You've got to have another one. One leads to another one, and
another one leads to another one, and another one leads to another
one. It never quenches its thirst until finally that person becomes
inebriated, inebriated and finally might just throw up, pass out,
and what'll they do? Wake up in the morning and do
it again. That's what I've heard. Wake up in the morning and do
it again. And that's what the water of this world is like.
Miller beer. You drink one, you drink a little
bit of this, you drink a little bit of that, you've got to have
some of this. And this leads to that. And this is until you get inebriated
with this world. Until you're satisfied and happy
and all that, until, oh, I hope the Lord will make you throw
up. Get sick of this old world and die. Die. And hopefully he'll
raise you to see yourself a better... Again, no amount of any pleasure
will suffice. It won't do it. Whatever it may
be, it won't do it. Young people in particular. You're
just now getting into the things of this world. It won't suffice. It'll leave you thirsty for more.
It may kill you. It may kill you in the end. The
water of this world will leave you thirsty again. If you drink
of this water, you'll thirst again. But, verse 14, whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him, the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst. Never thirst. Are you tired of
yourself? Are you tired of this world?
I wish there was somebody in here. I hope there is. People
in here are tired of themselves. That's what God does when he
reveals himself to somebody. It makes them tired of themselves.
They're weary of me. They're sick of me, sin, self,
the world, everything. I need something. These people
in this world have a need of something. They don't know what.
I know what it is. I know exactly what it is. Are you unhappy? Do you feel guilty? Do things
plague you? I hope they do. Do you need something
you don't know what? Do you long to find real joy
and happiness? Only Christ will quench these
thirsts. Only Christ will do that. Only
Christ into your well of water springing up and eternal life,
life more abundant. He said, I'll give you life more
abundant. And I can't describe this to anybody. Nobody can describe
this to somebody. Nobody can make somebody want
this or make somebody desire this. You've got to experience
it yourself. You've got to take a drink. If so be that you have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. You know what I'm talking about.
Until then, you don't. You don't. And I pray to the
Lord, that's who we're appealing to now this morning, is that
the Lord must leave those in this building and show somebody
their insatiable thirst. for what they don't even know,
or who they don't know. Him. Him. Oh, I hope you do that. Well, look at verse 15. A woman
said unto her servant, Give me this water that I thirst not,
neither come hither. She wasn't interested in eternal
life. She was interested in temporal
relief. Yeah, give me, that sounds good.
Give me some water and I don't have to come back here again.
Get me out of this mess. Yeah. I don't have to draw it
from the well, I just get it, tap water. Great, I'll take it. Sounds good to me, give it here.
And there are a lot of people that are interested in things
like this today, that's primarily heaven. It sounds good, doesn't
it? High in the sky, sweet by and
by, meet mama, and mansions, and golf courses, and Plato is,
and it sounds good, and there was pain and sorrow, that's good.
Well, we're fine about that, right? Yeah, give me that. That's
good. Set Jesus. That ought to be true. Yeah,
that's it. I'll take it. Good deal. Entertainment. No sorrow, no suffering. Great,
I'll take that. But that's not saving thirst.
This woman hadn't yet been thirsty. That's not saving thirst. Christ
starts to deal with her real problem here. Look at it in verse
15. He said, she said, give me this
to drink right first and I need to come here to the draw. Verse
16, Christ said unto her, go call your husband and come
here. You see anything in that? Go
call your husband and come here. She did. So as he said it, husband. Her past started running through
her mind. I had five. Now I'm living in adultery. I'm
not living with him. He's not my husband. This man's not my
husband. And come follow him. It appears to be her heart started
palpitating. What he's saying here is repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In those few short
words, repent toward God and come follow Christ. Go call your
husband. Call to mind. Call to remember.
Remember who you are. Look at what you are. What you're
doing. Think about it. Repent. Save yourselves from
this untold regeneration. Come follow Christ. That's what
he's saying here. Repent. The woman said, I don't
have a husband. I don't have a husband. Jesus
said unto her, you've said well. I have no husband. You've had
five. And he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband, in that thou saidest truly." Your own mouth
has condemned you. Isn't that what he said, by your
words you'll be justified or by your words you'll be condemned? Christ, what he's doing here
is dealing with her sin, her person, herself, her awful condition
before God. The words say, and this is what
the word of God says. None righteous, none that do
us good, all guilty. What people say, and there may
be somebody in here right now, I've never, I'm not, I'm okay. I'm all right. You said, well,
that's your whole problem. You're all right. I have not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you
knew who you were, you wouldn't say that, right? If you knew
that you were not alright, you'd be begging God for mercy at this
very moment. If the Lord ever opens our eyes
and our hearts to see our real condition, what we really are,
where we're really headed, and this goes for church-going folk,
where we're really headed, what we really are, give diligence
to make our calling and election sure, then and then only will
we see Christ and run to Him and be actually saved. But not
until then. If we're all right, if we're
all right, I have no husband, I'm all right, and living in
sin, without Christ, without God, we've condemned ourselves. what
we say, condemned our sin. And although this woman, think
about this, this woman was clearly, clearly a notorious woman, and
she was still blind to her condition. And it's the same thing with
different people. Even some folks in here. I know
it is so. I was that way, sat here, sat as a young man and
listened to the gospel. I mean, living in open rebellion
and sin. Goodness gracious. The sins are
in the heart. in the heart, and all of us have
it in us. But even as, when I was living in open rebellion and
sin and iniquity, I'd come sit and, I don't know what, it's
like in a, in a mesmerizing, in a stupor, dead, blind, deaf,
dumb, just, you know, you, it was all been there. Just sit
and listen to the gospel, just unaffected, unaffected, Verse
19, the woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive it your prophet.
I perceive your prophet. She was convinced that she wasn't
convicted. She saw some truth in what he
was saying, but she hadn't yet seen him. And that's me too. I came to a point where I said,
yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I do. I believe that. It seems logical. I start coming
to church. I want to straighten my life
up, and this and that and the other, and get a good job, and
find me a nice little woman, and straighten my life up, and
get religious, and everything will be all right from then on.
That's the reasonable thing to do. But I haven't seen him yet.
I haven't seen him yet. And she was somewhat interested
and convinced by what he said, but she quickly changed the subject,
didn't she? She immediately, she avoided
the issue, her sin, her condition, her inward condition. She avoided
the issue real fast. Verse 20, look what she said.
So, I could sit here and prophesy. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and I mean, and everybody is religious. Brother
Todd Nyberg, let me tell you this real fast. Brother Todd
Nyberg and Brother Danny Blair, years ago, started, the two of
them, when they were in college, they started a mission down in
the slum area of Lexington, Kentucky, down where the poor folks and
drunks and all that were. They started a mission in a storefront
building. And they thought, we'll go where sinners are. We'll go
find us some sinners. Drunks, harlots, prostitutes
walking up and down and so forth, drunks. I sat in some of the
services. Sure enough, drunks would come in. What are you doing
here? And they'd sit down and they'd
listen and all that. And they'd go up on the street, zealous,
walk up on the street to different people and hand out tracts and
talk to them and this and that and the other. Todd said one
day he went up to one fellow, a big old fellow about six foot
five, three hundred pounds. He said he was Todd said he was
shaking in his boots. And he said he handed him a track
and tried to talk to him a little bit. The fellow, he said he smelled
liquor all over him. He was just kind of sitting there,
swarming a little bit. Todd was talking to him about
salvation for sinners. The fellow said, I ain't no sinner! I ain't no sinner! You know what Barnard used to
say. He said, I'm not trying to get people saved. I'm trying
to get them lost. Because there ain't no sinners
out there. Find me a sinner, and he'll find a Savior. The
Savior will find him. He'll come to where he is. Are
there any sinners in here? Oh boy, I hope so. I hope so. But this woman was a notorious
woman. Let's see still, she was religious. I perceive you're
a prophet. Now, I've got a question for
you. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and this is where
I worship every Sabbath. Make sure of that. And you say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. My
daddy was a preacher, and my mother brought me up in church,
and I went to Sunday school. They were Baptists. But my neighbors
were Methodists, and you're Calvinists. You say this or that ought to
be done. But we believe this. Answer me a question. Do y'all
use musical instruments in your church? Do you use wine at communion? Important questions, you know.
Son of God standing before her. Do you pray your future? We don't. Don't believe in that. Do you
have an altar call? Do you? Answer one more question
for me. Do you have curtains in your
synagogue? Our fathers say this or that
and the other. Before Christ said there are women! Women! Believe me. Believe me, the hour cometh. When you see me worshiping this
man, or you ever worship Jerusalem, worship the Father, the hour
cometh. And for this woman, now I always
right around the corner. For our cometh, when all this
denomination are done, will be heaped up, and the rest of this
stuff, Calvin, Methodist, Arminian, whatever you call it, heaped
up, thrown in a pile. And they will worship God. They'll
worship Him in spirit, in reality, in truth. They'll see Christ. They'll get by all this stuff
and see Him. and worship him and not a lot
of him. And look at verse 22, he said,
you don't know what you worship. And that's the truth, folks.
You talk to folks out there. Most people don't have the foggiest
notion of what they believe. Max Spurgeon said, talking to
that young man, he said, what do you, what is your, what do
you believe? He said, I believe the same thing
my preacher believes. He said, what does your preacher believe?
He said, he believes what I believe. He said, what do y'all believe?
He said, same thing. What do you believe? I believe
what the Baptists believe. What do the Baptists believe?
What do you believe? Jesus? Yeah, that's it, Jesus. Jesus said, Bible? Bible? Well, if it's Word? Yeah, that's
it, it's Word. What about the wedding? Well,
wait a minute. Most people don't know what they
believe. Don't know what they believe. Christ said, we know
what we worship, salvations of the Jews. What's he saying here? Salvations of the Jews. What's
he saying? He's saying salvation by sovereign grace and mercy
is what he's saying. Who are the Jews? A chosen people. A chosen generation. God said
to the Jews, I didn't choose you because you were more in
number, because y'all were seeking me. No, you weren't seeking me,
I was seeking you. They were chosen people, a people
whom God set his affection upon from the foundation of the world.
That's who the Jews were, a chosen people, elect in love. We know
what we worship. We worship a God who elects people.
I guess they won't be elected. They won't be saved unless he
elects them. That's what we worship. That's
what we know and believe. We believe God does the choosing.
Just like those Jews. He must choose us. Spiritual
Jews. Spiritual Israel. That's what
we believe. That's what the Bible says. We believe that salvation
is in the ark. The Jews knew that, didn't they?
You don't worship God except if you go through the ark, right?
That's what we believe. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can come here with your works, with your morality,
with your religion, or this and that and the other. You come
on through Christ. That's what we believe. We know
what we believe, do we not? Do we? Yeah, we do. Salvation
is of the Jews. Salvation is in the sovereign
mercy and grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. saving his
people. We know what we worship. Salvation
is in Christ, imputing his righteousness to us and shedding his blood
on our account. We know what we believe. Yeah. And be ready to give every man
a reason for the hopes within you. But, verse 23, the hour
cometh and now is when true worshippers, the hour cometh and now is when
true worshippers, true seekers, true sinners, shall worship,
shall call, seek, knock, ask, cry out for mercy, not go through
the motions, cry out for mercy. Worship God in spirit and in
truth, for the Father is a spirit. God is a spirit, and he seeks
such to worship him, and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. Must. Must. We must worship our
God. Must. And you can only do that
in the Lord Jesus Christ, through him. Well, the woman, look at
verse 25, she said unto him, and by this time there's no escaping
it now. She'd been face to face with
some truths that she, you know, she wasn't thinking about these
things, and there's no escaping it now. Now she had to deal with
reality. All this religion laid aside.
He put it in the dust where it belonged. She said, well, I know that Messiah is coming.
Which is Christ. When He's come, He'll tell us
all things. He'll tell us all things. And if a person's honest, if
they've been reading the Bible at all, and you deal with them
at all, they'll say, well, I know that Jesus saves. I know that
Jesus saves. Yet, they may not have met Him.
It's at their own mouths. I know that Jesus saves. Yep,
He does. To write what? And you've got
to meet him. You've got to meet him. You've
got to come to where you are. I know that when the Messiah's come,
which is called Christ, he'll tell us all things. He may have smiled. I've seen this look. He looked
her in the eye. and said unto her, I am. He that speaketh today, I that
speak unto thee, I am. I am. I am. That's what he said. You see
that he? That's in italics, isn't it? It means he said, I that
speaketh unto thee, If you see who this man is, more
than just a man, your hope of eternal life, God Almighty in
human flesh, if you ever see that, the glory and the beauty
of this man, the reality of all that, of who he is, it will change
your life. It will. It will. And you'll quit coming to church.
You'll start coming to Christ. You start coming to Christ. Well, look at verse 27. And Paul and his disciples came
up, and they marveled that he talked with this woman. You think
about that. These guys were just old fishermen. Cousin, Martin,
Redman, June, fishermen. And they marveled that he spoke
with this notorious woman. Now they were pious, you know.
They were good Christians. Don't learn, do it. It marveled
that he spoke to this woman, yet none of them said, thankfully
none of them said, why are you talking to her? Let's think of
that. Why do you talk to this woman?
This was God's providence. Disciples came up, but they didn't
say a word because they had no part in this matter. If the Lord
of glory is on your trail, he won't let any soul winner get
in your way. He won't let any preacher get in your way. or
any superstition or tradition or whatever, or any church beliefs
get in your way, he'll deal with you personally. Yes, he will. They had no part or lot in this
matter. It's between the Savior and the sheep, right? Shepherd
and the sheep. He's going to have her. He's going to talk
to her. She's going to see him. And that's what this preaching
is all about, to point you to him, not me, not us, not this
congregation. Him. Him. What we are is the
pole that lifts the serpent up. Look to him. Look to him. As long as that pole doesn't
have the serpent on it, as long as it's not lifting up the serpent
on the pole, it's useless. Right? Break it. Burn it. It's
no good. Well, look. Her reaction. Verse
29. Verse 28. She left her water
pot and went her way in the city. Now, people didn't have much
back then. I gotta hurt. People didn't have much. She
might have had this water pot all her life. It was Mama's water
pot, and her Mama's Mama's water pot, and Mama's Mama's Mama's
water pot, and her Mama's Mama's Mama made this water pot with
her own two hands. It's a precious little water
pot. And that's what people were saying about their religion.
This was Mama's church. This was Daddy's church. Daddy
built this with his bare hands. Granddaddy's church. Daddy was
the preacher, or whatever. She left that old water pot.
Why? She saw him. Yeah, what's she
do with an old water pot? She had a good drink of him,
a good draft from that living water, that fountain of water.
And I tell you what, if someone ever meets Christ, they'll drop
mama's religion. They'll drop their water pot
of self-righteous, filthy works. They'll drop, like old Blind
Bartimaeus, you know, he had that robe, that's the only thing
he owned. When he saw a pass, what'd he do? Wow! Threw that
thing away. I don't need his denominationalism
or my works, I need him. I gotta get to him. She dropped
that old water pot and went running into town. Look what she said,
verse 29. Come see a man! Come see a man. That's how we witness, Terry.
Don't go out there talking to people on the street or whoever
on the job site. Don't you come to church. That's
not witnessing. We don't want people to come
to church. We want people to come to Christ. And what we need
to do when we talk to people is say, come see a man. More than a man. Is not this the Christ? He told
me all things over I did. Is not this the Christ? Come
see a man. Come see the Christ. Come hear
about the one we're hearing about. That's a good line to use. We
don't have to come to church. Everybody's saying that. Come
to our church. Come to this church. We want you to our church. trying
to be a big jerk. No. Don't you come hear what
we're hearing. We're hearing about Christ. Come
see a man. Come see a man. Is not this the
Christ? And if God is pleased, if he
must need to go through this place and meet a particular Samaritan
woman or man like that, he'll reveal to them this man. He'll
show them. And they come in here, and they
hear the message. They'll be like this woman. They'll
drop that water pot of religion. Their eyes will bug out. And they'll see a man. They'll
see Christ. They'll see the glory of God
in the face of this man, Jesus Christ. And they'll come to Him.
And anybody in here ever sees Christ, see that what you are,
what I am. We ought to see it daily, don't
we? We've got to see it every day. Every one of us, or else
we won't come to Christ. If He ever shows us who we are,
and drops all this facade of religion and all your thoughts
and imaginations of the way it ought to be, this, that, and
the other, and comes face to face with the Son of God and
your sin, and sees your desperate need of Him, He reveals it to
you. You'll be a changed person. Changed person. Come see a man. We're going to
talk about this man again tonight. Come see a man. Come out tonight
and see this man again. If God's pleased to bless us. Let's stand and sing a song that
we know well. Number 235. 235. Listen to the words. Don't get
caught up with the sentimentality of it and the emotion of it and
the music and all that. I know we use this for altar
calls and all that, but just listen to the words, OK? I hope
this is your prayer. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. He didn't have to go through
Samaria, did he? What did he need with that woman? What's
he need with you, Janette? There's a billion, zillion women
just like you. He doesn't need you. Sure you
can sing. He gave you the voice. He doesn't
need me, a two-bit preacher. He can make rocks of preachers. He doesn't need anybody in here.
But, buddy, I'm praying and asking and saying, I sure need you.
Don't pass me by. And he won't. He won't. Let's sing this. Pass me not
until the Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art
calling, do not pass me by. Hear my humble cry, While on
others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Second as the last. Let me add a tone of mercy, you.